Helping St. Joseph’s students make healthy choices in their lives.

St. Joseph’s Indian School students recently learned some fast and easy recipes from Ken, formerly a professional chef.

Sixth, seventh and eighth-grade students each spent a class period learning to make pizza casserole and a single serving of ice cream with only a few common ingredients from the pantry.

“My goal is to help these students feel comfortable helping out in the kitchen,” he said.

“Cooking is a life skill they will need in the not-so-distant future. Hopefully, lessons like this will stick with them; they will realize they can cook for themselves and not eat fast food all the time.”

A recent study found that only 10 percent of Native Americans have a healthful diet, while 90 percent have a poor quality that needs improvement. Native Americans are also four times more likely to report not having enough to eat than other U.S. households.

Working for food service distributor Sysco, Ken volunteered his time, skills and love of cooking to help St. Joseph’s students make healthy choices in their lives.

Success – homemade ice cream for everyone!

Vanilla Ice Cream in a Bag:
• ½ cup half and half, milk or cream
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon vanilla
• 1 sandwich size zip top baggie
• 1 gallon size zip top baggie
• 3 cups crushed ice
• ½ cup rock salt
Directions: Add cream, sugar and vanilla into small baggie and zip closed. In larger baggie add ice and rock salt. Place smaller ice cream bag inside larger rock salt baggie. Seal bag closed. Double check to make sure both are sealed tight. Squeeze, toss, wiggle, play catch with the bag until mixture thickens about 10-15 minutes. Eat with a spoon.

For chocolate baggie ice cream add ¼ teaspoon cocoa powder or 1 tablespoon chocolate drink mix powder.

For a malted milk flavor add 1 tablespoon malted milk powder.

Yogurt Ice Cream in a Bag:
• 2 containers plain or vanilla yogurt
• 1 cup mashed fruit, like strawberries or peaches
Directions: Add ingredients in a zip top bag and squeeze together to combine. Freeze several hours or use the method above. When ready to eat snip a corner off a bag and squeeze out or eat with a spoon.

Biscuit Pizza Bake:
• 2 (12 ounce) packages refrigerated buttermilk biscuits
• 1 (15 ounce) can pizza sauce
• 1 cup chopped green pepper
• 1/2 cup chopped onion
• 1 (4 ounce) can mushroom stems and pieces, drained
• 1 (3.25 ounce) package sliced pepperoni
• 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese
• 1 cup shredded Cheddar cheese
Directions: Quarter the biscuits; place in a greased shallow 3-qt. baking dish. Top with pizza sauce. Layer green pepper, onion, mushrooms, pepperoni and cheeses on top. Bake uncovered at 350 degrees F for 25-30 minutes or until cheese is melted. Let stand for 5 minutes before serving.